The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human NatureJames, William
ReligionComparative
The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature
James, William
Conversion; Experience (Religion); Philosophy and religion; Psychology, Religious; Religion
“I said to the Lord: ‘Thou hast said, they that ask shall receive,
they that seek shall find, and to them that knock the door shall
be opened, and I have faith to believe it.’ In an instant the Lord
made me so happy that I cannot express what I felt. I shouted for
joy. I praised God with my whole heart.... I think this was in
November, 1823, but what day of the month I do not know. I
remember this, that everything looked new to me, the people, the
fields, the cattle, the trees. I was like a new man in a new
world. I spent the greater part of my time in praising the
Lord.”(136)
Starbuck and Leuba both illustrate this sense of newness by quotations. I
take the two following from Starbuck’s manuscript collection. One, a
woman, says:—
“I was taken to a camp‐meeting, mother and religious friends
seeking and praying for my conversion. My emotional nature was
stirred to its depths; confessions of depravity and pleading with
God for salvation from sin made me oblivious of all surroundings.
I plead for mercy, and had a vivid realization of forgiveness and
renewal of my nature. When rising from my knees I exclaimed, ‘Old
things have passed away, all things have become new.’ It was like
entering another world, a new state of existence. Natural objects
were glorified, my spiritual vision was so clarified that I saw
beauty in every material object in the universe, the woods were
vocal with heavenly music; my soul exulted in the love of God, and
I wanted everybody to share in my joy.”
The next case is that of a man:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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